Chapter Fourteen

Priestly led Sam and John into the sub shop, pulling his tie off and unbuttoning the top couple buttons of his dress shirt. The three of them were immediately bombarded with questions from those waiting inside. Sam and John stared overwhelmed at everyone before Priestly put his thumb and finger to his lips and whistled.

"Everybody, calm down," Priestly told them as they settled. "We're working as hard as we can."

"What's this about Jen being kidnapped?" Jeff demanded. "Why would you need a cover story for that?"

"To avoid panic," John told him. "Now, we need to ask you guys some questions—"

"Why would Jen be kidnapped?" Jeff asked. "It doesn't—"

"Jeff, dude, you need to calm down," Priestly told him. "Trust them, they're professionals. The sooner we get these answers, the sooner we can find Jen."

Jeff sighed before nodding.

"These questions may seem a little weird, but they fit our bad guy's M.O., so bear with us," John explained. "Has anyone noticed anything weird lately? Something or someone out of place?"

He was answered with shakes of heads.

"How about black smoke?" asked Sam. "Anyone seen any black smoke?"

Again, negative head shakes.

"Smelled any rotten eggs or sulfur?" asked John.

"No!" burst Jeff. "What kind of questions are these?"

Priestly clapped a hang on Jeff's shoulder. "What can I say? This guy is one weird criminal."

Sam walked over to the computer on the counter. "Then we start at square one." He sat down on the stool and began typing away.

John pulled out his cell phone and headed into the back room.

Tish stepped over to Priestly. "Any luck?"

Priestly shook his head. "Trail ran cold outside the church, and the cops didn't have any useful information. But don't worry. Dad and Sammy'll come up with something."

"Priestly," said Jeff as he stepped over, a worried look on his face.

Tish excused herself and went to comfort Piper, Noah and Julia.

"Please tell me the truth," Jeff begged, tears starting to form in his eyes. "Is there any chance of finding Jen alive?"

Priestly clenched his jaw determinedly. "Definitely. Trust me, if anyone can pull this off, it's us."

Jeff nodded, breathing out a shaky sigh of relief as he wiped a stray tear away.

Trucker walked up to them, placing a hand on Jeff's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Jeff. She's gonna be okay."

Jeff nodded as Trucker pulled Jen's engagement ring out of his pocket.

Trucker held up the ring. "For when we find her." He placed the ring in Jeff's hand.

"Thanks, Trucker," Jeff told him, holding the ring tight.

John walked back into the lobby, slipping his phone back into his pocket. "Okay, I got some contacts of mine searching some parameters. While we wait for him to call back, let's get some refreshments. An army marches on its stomach. Dean, can you help?"

"Yeah," Priestly nodded, heading over to the soda fountain.

He set out glasses, and John filled them with water as he got them. About halfway through, Priestly noticed John tipping some liquid into each glass of water. He could guess easily enough what John was doing: adding holy water to the drinks.

"You think it's in one of them?" Priestly whispered to him.

"Maybe," said John. "It would be an easy way in."

Priestly nodded, trying to think of how he would explain to Jeff, Noah and Julia what was happening if one of them began burning and yelling. He wasn't really worried about Zo; he had a hunch that she'd known about things like this for years.

John handed him a few glasses, and Priestly headed over to Piper, Noah and Julia, handing the glasses to them.

"Thanks," said Noah.

Priestly watched out of the corner of his eye on his way back to the soda fountain as his three friends took sips of water and nothing happened. Priestly took two more glasses to Trucker and Zo with the same reaction. Nothing happened with Tish and Jeff, either.

John sighed. "Well, it wasn't one of us."

"Next move?" asked Priestly.

John glanced over at Sam. "Research."

Piper stood from the table she sat at with Noah and Julia, heading around the counter towards Priestly and his father. "I'm not sure if it's related or not, but I just remembered something."

"Yeah, great, anything," nodded Priestly.

"At the bachelorette party last night, there was this guy staring at us a lot," Piper told them. "He never made any move from his table, but every time we looked at him, he was watching us."

"Anything you can tell us about him?" asked John.

Piper shook her head. "All I know is when we got up to leave the restaurant, I looked over, and he was just gone."

"Which restaurant did you guys go to?" asked Priestly.

"Roland's Bar and Grill," Piper answered.

"Okay, thanks, Piper," said Priestly, turning back to John as Piper went back to her table.

"Alright, we're gonna go check out Roland's," John told him. "Tell Sam. I'll get our gear together." He headed out the door towards the Impala.

Priestly stepped over to Sam. "Hey, the demon might've been at the bar the girls were at last night. Dad and I are gonna go check it out."

Sam nodded. "Gotcha. See you when you get back."

Priestly gave a half-glance at his friends gathered in the shop. "You got this handled?"

Sam gave him an exasperated look. "I have been doing this longer than you, you know."

Priestly gave him a look, brows raised.

"Okay, technically, you are older than me, but you don't remember anything past two years ago, so…" Sam told him.

Priestly gave him a smirk. "Point taken, bro." He turned towards the door as Tish intercepted him.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Piper gave us a lead," Priestly explained. "We're gonna check it out and come back."

Tish wrapped her arms around the back of his neck. "Be careful."

"Careful's my middle name," smirked Priestly. He gave her a kiss and turned to the door, heading out to the Impala.

********************************************SPN/TI H************************************************* ******

"Do you remember any suspicious characters?" John asked the restaurant manager.

"Well, we get a couple weird ones every now and then," said the man. "It is a bar. But I haven't had anyone that made me keep an eye on them for at least a week or so now."

"Do you remember a bachelorette party last night?" asked John.

"Oh, yeah, gave them a round of free drinks," said the manager.

Priestly watched as John questioned the manager, consuming his attention so Priestly could snoop. Priestly made his way around the tables, holding the EMF meter down by his side. As he passed by a booth in the corner, the meter lit up and began whining.

Priestly quickly shut it off, looking around to make sure no one noticed. Thankfully, the servers were busy with tables on the other side of the dining room. Stuffing the detector into his pocket, he squatted down in front of the booth, looking for any signs he could find. He frowned as he spotted a mark on the hardwood floor. Pulling a small flashlight out of his jacket, he shone the light onto the mark.

Embedded in the grains along one strip of wood was something yellow, and Priestly had a pretty good idea what it was.

Priestly scratched at the graining with his fingernail and then brought it up to his nose to smell. "Yep…sulfur…"

"Hey."

Priestly stood and faced his father. "Anything?"

"The manager was no help, big surprise," John said. "Then again, they usually stay up front or in the kitchen. But one of the waitresses remembers a guy she served last night that was 'really creepy' and kept staring at a table of girls. She says he had a specific request for his order: no salt. What'd you find?"

Priestly held up the finger with the sulfur under the nail. "Looks like it got stuck in the wood graining when they swept the floors last night." He pulled the EMF meter out. "EMF's lighting up, too."

"Okay, it looks like this wasn't just random, then," said John. "This demon was either watching the girls or tracking Jen specifically."

"But why?" asked Priestly. "What would a demon want with Jen? She isn't a hunter."

"Maybe it didn't pick anyone," John theorized. "Maybe it was just out for anyone and his eye happened to fall on Jen." He gave a thoughtful shrug. "Or…"

Priestly frowned at him. "Or what?"

"Maybe it's trying to get to us," said John.

"By picking off my friends," Priestly muttered. He clenched his jaw. "Oh, I'm really gonna kill him."

John's phone rang, and he pulled it out, looking at the screen. "It's Sam." He flipped it open and put it to his ear. "Yeah?" He listened for a moment. "On our way." He hung up.

"Sam find something?" asked Priestly.

"Yeah," said John, leading the way out of the restaurant. "He thinks he found where the demon's holed up."

***************************************SPN/TIH**** ************************************************** *****

Priestly rushed into the sub s hop, dodging the questions as he headed to Sam at the computer. "What'd you find?"

"An electrical surge in the warehouse district downtown," Sam told him. "The power company is reporting it as an overloaded transformer, but that would affect a whole grid. This is only on one block."

"Good, where?" asked Priestly anxiously as John joined them.

"Across from that run-down movie theatre," Sam said.

"Good work, Sammy," said John. "We'll gear up and hit the road."

"All of us?" asked Sam.

"Yes, all of us," said John.

"But shouldn't one of us stay behind?" asked Sam.

"You guys are talking about the guy that took Jen, right?" asked Jeff.

"We need all three of us to take him down," John argued, ignoring Jeff.

"But shouldn't we keep a back-up?" Sam pointed out.

"If we go after this guy and take him out, we won't need a back-up," John told him, impatiently.

"And that requires all of us?" said Sam.

"It'll take all of us to take care of the job," said John, his voice starting to rise.

"And who is gonna watch them to make sure nothing happens?" asked Sam, his voice also rising.

"Come on, guys," said Priestly. "Don't do this."

"If we take care of the problem, we won't have to watch them," John argued.

"Dad, we can't—" began Sam.

"That's enough, Sam," John said firmly. "We don't have time for this."

"Exactly," said Priestly. "Let's go."

"Oh, so, we're back to that now?" said Sam, his eyes narrowing angrily. "'I'm the father, so I'm in charge. No questions.'"

"Guys!" yelled Priestly, stepping in between them and shoving them apart. "We don't have time for this! Stop it!"

Sam looked at Priestly, seemingly coming to himself, and then looked back at John. "He's right. Jen needs us." He sighed in frustration. "We'll all go. We'll make sure we didn't need back-up." He strode past Priestly and John as he headed out to the Impala, not looking too happy about who had won that argument.

John glanced at Priestly before following Sam out the door. Priestly stared after them, slightly stunned.

I just caught a glimpse of the old Sam and Dad, didn't I? he thought, heading out after them.

************************************************** *******SPN/TIH************************************ ************************

Priestly parked his car at the corner, his eyes on the line of warehouses down the street. He saw the Impala pull up behind him in his rearview mirror, and they all got out.

Priestly walked over to Sam and John at the Impala's trunk. "Which one?"

"That's what we're gonna find out," said John, handing an EMF detector to Priestly. "You're gonna scan the buildings. You look more like you'd be hanging around this part of town." He nodded at the Mohawk, piercings, tattoos and punk clothing he'd changed back into before arriving. "Don't be obvious; they may be watching."

"Got it," said Priestly, taking the detector and heading back to his car. He pulled his ear-buds off of his iPod, closing the driver's door. "For effect."

Priestly plugged the headphones into the EMF detector, sliding it into his pocket. He headed across the street, taking his time to pretend he was just listening to music as he meandered through town. The EMF detector would whine little by little in his headphones as he passed by streetlamps and other electrical hotspots.

As he sauntered past the first deserted building, hands in his pockets, he kept his eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. He made sure to keep up the appearance of just a regular guy up to no good, but it was proving hard.

Inside one of these buildings is Jen, he thought.

The EMF meter began emitting a high-pitched shriek in his ear-buds, and Priestly's heart jumped. His eyes looked up slightly to his left at the abandoned textile mill next to him. He almost stopped and burst right into the building, but he knew he couldn't tip his hand or the demon, or possibly demons, would take Jen and run.

Priestly kept walking, looping around to the other side of the street and around the corner to where Sam and John were waiting, munitions at the ready. "The mill. They're in the mill."

"Okay, you two take the front," said John told them. "I'll head around back. Be careful."

"You, too," said Priestly, taking the salt gun Sam offered him.

John pulled the Colt out of his jacket and walked across the street, heading around to the next block to go in the back. Sam and Priestly made their way towards the building, the dark of the night their cover. The brothers eased the door open, being as silent as they could. Priestly kept looking around for anything jumping out at them, but the entire trek through the mill was met with no resistance.

Priestly sent a questioning glance at Sam, not wanting to open his mouth and announce their location in case there was still something waiting for them. Sam sent the same look back at him as they headed through a doorway into what had once been a break room. A blonde girl in a wedding dress and veil lay on the floor against the far wall, her hair pulled messily out of the bun and her dress spotted with dirt.

"Jen!" Priestly hissed, hurrying over to her as Sam covered him.

Priestly quietly set the salt gun on the floor as he grabbed Jen's shoulder, turning her over and sweeping the veil off of her face.

Priestly froze in shock. "What the…"

It wasn't Jen. It was her wedding dress alright, but the woman wearing it was definitely not Jen.

The woman's eyes opened, a pure soulless black. "Oh, look."

Priestly jumped back a little, snatching up his discarded salt gun in the process and aiming it at her.

"Jen's knight in shining armor," the demon purred at him.

Priestly narrowed his eyes at her. "Where's Jen?"

The demon smirked at him. "You know, I really must ask Jen where she shops." She rubbed her hands down the wedding gown. "Girl has style."

"Where is she?" Priestly yelled as John came through another doorway, aiming the Colt at the woman.

The demon eased herself up onto her elbows. "She's safe…for now."

"Something's wrong," said Sam.

Priestly looked back at him.

Sam glanced around the room before looking at the two of them. "This doesn't feel right."

"He's right," said John. "They should have ambushed us by now."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry," said the demon. "You're perfectly safe." Her smile widened ominously. "Can't say the same for your friends, though."

Priestly's eyes widened in horror. "Oh, my God…It is a trap…" He looked up at John, his heart pounding against his ribcage.

John stared at him in alarm. "It just isn't for us."

Priestly bolted up from the floor, tearing through the building and out the door. He ran to his car and jumped in, peeling away from the curb as he raced towards the sub shop.

Please don't let me be too late, he pleaded.

Thoughts of his friends raced through his head until they landed on Tish.

Tish wrapped her arms around the back of his neck. "Be careful."

"Careful's my middle name," smirked Priestly. He gave her a kiss and turned to the door, heading out to the Impala.

Priestly hit the gas a little harder. Please don't let that have been goodbye.

As the Beach City Grill came into view, Priestly tried to see if anything was off, but the lights were still on, spilling out onto the street, just as they had left them. Priestly slammed the car to a stop across the street from the shop, flinging open the driver's door, running to the building, grabbing the door and ripping it open. He froze in the doorway at the sight before him…

The grill was completely empty.

Priestly stared around the deserted room, spotting a few drops of blood and a couple smatterings of sulfur on the floor.

"Tish!" Priestly called hesitantly, not sure what response he was hoping for. "Anybody?"

He moved through the lobby, checking out the rest of the rooms before circling back to the dining area, where Sam and John had just burst through the front door.

Priestly stared at them in desperation. "They're gone…"

I was really tempted to end it at "He froze in the doorway at the sight before him…" but you all would have killed me, so…